Metro Group splits, two parts head to stock exchange

A court in the German city of Düsseldorf has registered the two separate companies that thus far made up the Metro Group. As of now, both companies feature on the stock exchange separately.

“Historic day”

“This is a historic day for our shareholders, employees and customers”, CEO Olaf Koch said. It is the culmination of a plan long in the works: to create two entities, namely a food company with a 37 billion euro turnover and an electronics retailer with a 22 billion euro turnover.

Metro Group’s current shareholders will get the shares in the two new companies, Metro and Ceconomy. A Metro Group share is worth one share in the new Metro and one share in Ceconomy. The shareholders almost unanimously approved the split back in February.

The split will cost about 100 million euro, but should help each company to grow much faster in the future. “We do many things better separately”, Koch said back in February. He will take control of the food company starting tomorrow. “Soon, we will no longer be distracted by group structures that offer no synergies.”